Coniston Lake

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Francis Wheatley was born in London. He studied at Shipley’s Academy before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1769. He made a number of trips aboard during the 1760s and became influenced by contemporary French painting, particularly the work of Jean-Baptiste Greuze and François Boucher. Wheatley was elected a Fellow of the Society of Artists in 1770 and became a director in 1774. In 1779, he fled to Dublin with the wife of another artist to escape creditors. Having established himself in Ireland, he returned to London in 1783 and produced work for the print publisher John Boydell. His images of itinerant merchants of the early 1790s were published for English and French markets. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1791.
In 1767 Samuel Middiman was apprenticed to the engraver William Byrne and later worked with printmakers William Woollett and Francesco Bartolozzi. As a specialist in landscape etching, his skills were always in demand. He made 16 plates for the publication ‘Picturesque Castles and Abbeys in England and Wales’ (1807-11) and 53 for ‘Select Views in Great Britiain’ (1814). From 1780 to 1782 and from 1795 to 1797 he exhibited drawings at the Royal Academy. In 1788 he married Martha Woodyer at St Pancras. Middiman produced four plates for the ‘Shakespeare Gallery’. Later in his career he turned to landscape painting and exhibited several works at the British Institution. He died at Cirencester Place in Westbourne Park, London, in December 1831.

Places

England, Lake District, Cumbria

Subjects

cart, topography, tree, horse, lake, mountain, man, woman, road, house

Materials & Techniques

engraving, coloured engraving

Artist

Francis Wheatley (1747 - 1801)
Samuel Middiman (1750 - 1831)

Title

Coniston Lake

Date

published 25 May 1785

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Baynton-Williams, February 1977

GAC number

12838